The arrival of new industry to the growing community of De Soto, Kansas, created a need to expand the city’s existing biological wastewater treatment facility to accommodate greater flows.
Our joint venture team with CAS Constructors is delivering the expansion using progressive design-build, the first use of this delivery option for the city. This approach has enabled our team to meet an exceptionally aggressive schedule, reaching 30% design in less than three months.
The timeline is driven by one of Kansas’ largest economic development opportunities: a new Panasonic battery plant, expected to bring 4,000 to 8,000 new jobs to the area and help meet demand for batteries to power electric vehicles. This makes the wastewater project a high-profile one, both for Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The wastewater expansion project is being delivered via an accelerated, phased approach that supports initial build-out, expected expansion and future commercial, industrial and residential growth that will accompany the influence of the Panasonic facility.
The project is scheduled to begin accepting wastewater from Panasonic in summer 2024, and this phase of expansion is slated to be complete by May 2026. The first expansion project improves facility safety and security, and capacity was increased from 1.3 million gallons per day (MGD) to 2.6 MGD, with future expansions as growth occurs. The expansion addresses increasingly stringent water quality requirements for nitrogen and phosphorus using a combined chemical-physical-biological approach.
Design and construction of a new influent pump station was expedited to accommodate the initial industrial wastewater flows. The accelerated schedule allowed the city to satisfy the requirements for the Panasonic plant’s operational startup. The electrical design effort was also front-loaded to support long procurement lead times for critical components of the pump station and the treatment expansion.